Sons

10And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies dthrough His Spirit who dwells in you. 12Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, 14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba,e Father.” 16The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Romans 8: 10 - 17 NKJV

One of the things I've often mentioned before are my struggles with the realities of Christ Jesus when I still a young christian.  Don't get me wrong, I was happy in my new life, but words such as "Father and son" were pretty hard for me to deal with.  Of course, coming from a single parent home while growing up, one can imagine just how foreign a concept it may have been for me to consider myself a so of God.  Yet there it was in scripture, I was indeed a son of the Most High.  One of my good friends in church had a habit of refering to God as "Daddy," and this also floored me a bit.  Until that point, I had never heard someone refer to God as Daddy, to me it seemed giving God less impirtance than He surely deserved.  Like I said, I was young in my faith still.  For those who have gone through or are going through the very same thing I submit the apostle Pauls letter to the Romans.  For here Paul tells us that we are not only children of our heavenly Father, but heirs to Him as well.  Of course, this flew in the face of what I had always believed.  This was new territory for me.  How could I, a sinner, ever think of being a son of God or even an heir?  Anyway, wasn't the title of Son of God already taken?  This truth of Jesus had yet to take hold in me.

1Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of aGod! Therefore the world does not know bus, because it did not know Him. 2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
1 John 3: 1 - 3 NKJV

The major hurdle I had to overcome to realize this truth of who I really was in my heavenly Father was that I was no longer a sinner.  For Christ Jesus had paid that debt at the cross.  However, this was the message I kept hearing as a young christian from the pulpit.  Now, I could sit here and toss all the blame for my failure to realize the truth of Jesus at the church, but that wouldn't be all too truthful.  For the scriptures haven't changed all too much over time.  The very same scripture I refer to today has always been there.  In the fullness of time, the truth of my true identity was revealed to me.  I am not simply a sinner saved by grace, but a son of my loving Father in heaven.  My life and inheritance are in He who created me.  Not only that, He also ordained that I would live my life AS HIS SON who is within me.  This is the truth of Christ Jesus which Paul revealed in Galations 2:20.  That "Old Scott" which I once walked in has been put to death with Jesus.  My REAL identity does not belong to my earthly family, but to the family of God.  For I am indeed His son.

~Scott~